Way to Santiago budget
The Way to Santiago is the perfect plan to do during the holidays, depending on the time you have available. It’s also a great excuse to live a new experience, and most importantly, without spending too much.
The Way to Santiago is the perfect plan to do during the holidays, depending on the time you have available. It’s also a great excuse to live a new experience, and most importantly, without spending too much.
When we organize our free days, the first thing that we have to do is to plan our budget. But the Jacobean Route might surprise you. While you prepare your Way to Santiago budget, you will realize that is an affordable plan; you won’t feel it like an expense, but as an investment.
The money that you could waste depends on your attitude. “Depending on” is a frequent phrase while calculating your budget. But not because is one of the most used Galician words; it’s because of the different factors that you need to keep in mind. In Fascinating Spain we want to do a cost estimation for any pilgrims who may be interested in planning their budget.
We’ll consider the following questions: How many days are you going to be walking? Where do you want to sleep? Where do you want to eat? Will you carry everything with you or you will buy things on your way?
Your expenses will depend on the time that you have. This is going to be the first factor to keep in mind when preparing your Way to Santiago budget.
Pilgrims must decide what kind of lodging they prefer. There are many options to choose from: public hostels, private, hotels… The most common is to sleep in pilgrim hostels, as they can accommodate many people, with facilities like a kitchen or a laundry room. The average price of public hostels is 6-10€. Unfortunately, you cannot book them in advance.
Private hostels cost 8-16€ and you can book a spot beforehand. If you’re planning your Way to Santiago budget, we recommend you to read commentaries of other pilgrims about the lodgings. This could orientate you about the services and the state of the facilities.
Food is a factor that depends on your plan. To organize your Way to Santiago budget, you need to decide if you want to go to the restaurants or have sandwiches. You will have pilgrim menus in every corner and the price is more or less 10€. They frequently have a starter, a main dish and a dessert.
On the other hand, you could go to the supermarket and make delicious sandwiches. You will eat in the middle of nature and without the need to find a restaurant. Why? Because we think that the best option at the evening is to enjoy dinner with the rest of pilgrims in the hostels.
Like we have said before, these hostels have kitchen. Apart from being an amazing experience, this is a cheap election. The budget for the sandwiches or to dine in the hostel could be 5€ per person; even less if you are a big group. So, counting all the lunches in the day, you’d spend around 10€.
This is a topic that could determine your Way to Santiago budget. You have to keep in mind that you may probably buy things in the chemist. Blisters on your feet, pain in your calf muscles or headaches will disturb you; so you’ll need some extra money for medical expenses. The weather could determine that too. Maybe you’ll need new trainers, a raincoat or a cane that helps you walking.
You will also spend more money if you are a pilgrim-tourist. Your budget will increase when you buy tickets for monuments, presents or typical products. In the end, everything depends on what you want to spend.
Estimating your Way to Santiago budget is not easy, as it could change depending on your plan and on how much you’re willing to waste.
This is our estimated pricelist:
5 days: 145€
10 days: 250€
20 days: 420€
30 days: 650€
This estimation doesn’t include the money you’ll need to travel from the starting point or to return from Santiago. It might be around 60-100€, and much more if you’re not from Spain; so this is something that should be taken into account.
We know that not everybody has enough money, but we believe that the Way to Santiago budget is accessible. That’s why we don’t want the money to be an excuse to miss this experience, so we encourage you to bring yourself to do it and to enjoy it!
Text: Fátima González-Besada Gómez
